From readers' ratings of satisfaction, problem resolution, and perceived emotional change during treatment, Consumer Reports magazine (CR, 1995) concluded both that psychotherapy is effective and that longer, more intensive therapy is more effective. The authors compared prospectively gathered 45-Item Outcome Questionnaire scores (OQ-45; M. J. Lambert, N. B. with CR scores gathered 6 or more weeks after treatment among 302 former counseling center clients. CR perceived emotional change scores were strongly correlated with but sharply overestimated prospectively measured OQ-45 change scores. Treatment length was correlated with CR satisfaction ratings but not with CR perceived change scores, CR problem resolution scores, or change measured with the OQ-45. CR's conclusions appear to have been too optimistic and too general.

Fourth-grade children (N = 48) equivalent on word recognition skills, but differing in comprehension ability, read sentences manipulated at the verb position to determine whether sensitivity to syntactic and semantic cues differs between good and poor comprehenders. Data in the form of oral reading errors at the verb position support the hypothesis that poor comprehenders are not affected by the disruptive effect of syntactic and semantic violations, while good comprehenders exhibit an increasing number of errors across semantic and syntactic/semantic violations.

In order to better understand the effects of initial level of psychological disturbance on treatment outcome, a retrospective case control study of 95 couples who received couple therapy was conducted by sorting couples into one of four groups based on the degree of distress reported by individuals at intake: Neither distressed; both distressed; male distressed, female not distressed; female distressed, male not distressed. When partners started treatment with similar levels of disturbance both responded well in couple therapy. However, if the female reported clinical levels of disturbance at intake but her partner did not, outcome for the female was especially poor in contrast to outcomes for females receiving individual therapy. Clinically disturbed males showed significant gains in treatment even when their partners were not disturbed. These suggestive results argue for the possible value of conducting controlled studies of treatment assignment decisions that maximize positive outcomes.Keywords Couple versus individual therapy outcome AE Contraindications for couple therapy AE Negative treatment effects in couple therapy Sexton, Alexander, and Mease (2004) in their large scale review of the effects of couple therapy on psychological disorders note that much more research is needed in this area as most published research on couple therapy has examined marital adjustment rather than changes in psychological disorders. Despite the need for more research on the effects of couple therapy on psychological disorders, studies comparing individual versus couple therapy routinely fail to find superior outcomes for either treatment (e.g., Emanuels-

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